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Earlier today, a question was posted on the Meta Stack Exchange site. Here is an excerpt from that question:

Several right-wing websites have started reporting and thus directed attention of far-right groups to this network. I don't want to provide any links, but it's not too difficult to find examples with your favorite web search engine.

Now while you have the typical gut wrenching hate speech with murder and torture fantasies, there was one particular case where someone posted pseudo-code for automatically going through the member database of SE and finding users who have listed their pronouns in their "about me" section. The pseudo-code then moved those users into a category for torture and extermination.

I'll admit, I don't frequent neo-Nazi websites, and I certainly didn't want them spreading their cookies on my computer. However, at the urging of the OP, I did use my favorite search engine to perform one query, but came up empty-handed. As I perused the results, the first link pointed back to that same question on meta. There were a few other links to other SE questions (on Politics, History, etc.), but I couldn't find anything close to the kind of extreme hate speech alluded to in the question.

I'll also admit: I only looked three pages into the results; still, I could not find a single instance where any hate group was arguing that the latest brouhaha about SE's revised Code of Conduct indicated a bunch of us might be sympathetic to their cause.

I suppose a few such comments might exist somewhere on the darker Interweb, but I'm a little skeptical about "several right-wing websites" thinking that a Code of Conduct debate means they've suddenly found a network of allies on the Stack Exchange, or that some group somewhere has done some data mining and used preferred pronouns to create a "torture and extermination" list.

Moreover, if someone did post such a snippet of pseudo-code, is there any reason to believe this person was actually advocating torture and murder (as opposed to simply being an internet troll)?

It seems like an alarmist might be trying to press a hot button by posing as an anonymous user suddenly concerned about their personal safety. I don't want to dismiss the problem outright if in fact it is the widespread problem it's being made out to be, but the fact that I couldn't find examples as easily as this person claimed has me skeptical.

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J.R.
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    Skeptics.SE requires claims to be notable, and I'm not sure this qualifies as a notable claim. Also, is it really relevant what the motivation behind calling for murder is? 'It's just a joke/trolling' is a [notorious Nazi tactic](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daily-stormer-nazi-style-guide_n_5a2ece19e4b0ce3b344492f2) to normalize these sorts of calls to violence. – tim Oct 17 '19 at 16:01
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    the claim just says "someone", not plural neo-Nazis – DavePhD Oct 17 '19 at 16:01
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    But yes, it's easy to find examples. The first search result for "stackexchange code of conduct pronouns -site:stackexchange.com" is an article featuring a white supremacist symbol and has a highly upvoted comment that is calling for people to be put back into a "hermetically sealed" closet. The other comments are no better. Threads on 4chan are calling for people to die. This shouldn't be surprising, it's what Nazis do. – tim Oct 17 '19 at 16:21
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    @tim - Thanks for the research. I guess there is a lot more ugliness in the world than I initially reckoned. – J.R. Oct 17 '19 at 21:23
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    @tim I see, very disgusting. But nothing about "code for automatically going through the member database". – DavePhD Oct 18 '19 at 00:14
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    @DavePhD I focused on the title question. Googling for that specific thing is too difficult (esp for what I think is an off-topic question), but I have no reason to believe that it doesn't exist somewhere. – tim Oct 18 '19 at 05:51
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    @DavePhD Such code is(was?) posted on MSE itself. Two versions I saw, mock code with 'call2action' included off-site, working SEDE code on MSE. The latter perhaps best called 'dual-use' tool? // But that the censorship on MSE is currently so rampant, or a claim "too difficult to google" is now making a Q off-topic? – LangLаngС Oct 22 '19 at 15:35
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    @LangLangC "too difficult to google" is a sign of a good question, not a reason to close, in my opinion. – DavePhD Oct 22 '19 at 16:10
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    @LangLangC moderator Tinkeringbell seems to attest that the claim is true in comment here https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/336066/is-se-still-safe-for-queer-trans-folks/336074#336074 but that the evidence is deleted. I think only someone with access to deleted meta stuff could answer this question. – DavePhD Oct 22 '19 at 22:54
  • Τhеrе аrе dіffеrеnt thіnɡs іn thіs сlаіm∶ 1. ᛌΝео‐nаzіsᛌ оn SΕ 2. аnd suсh реорlе frоm еlsеwhеrе аrоund thе nеt 3. tаrɡеttіnɡ usеrs *frоm* SΕ sоmеwhеrе оn thе nеt 4. tаrɡеttіnɡ usеrs *оn* SΕ. 1+4 аrе hаmреrеd bу thе сurrеnt mеss сrеаtеd *bу SΕ* аnd *ᛌоur hоusе роlісуᛌ* Βut 2+3 sееms lіkе @tіm сlаіms tо hаvе аn аnswеr fоr wіth ехаmрlеs? – LangLаngС Oct 23 '19 at 11:02
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    I would say that a meta post with some 200+ upvotes is mildly notable. – Fizz Nov 08 '19 at 08:31
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    @Fizz It is only notable to people on SkepticsMeta.SE, which we can't really consider to be notable. Stack overflow would definitely a notable site, but not its meta. I would definitely say a claim there would be notable enough, but no our own meta. Plus talking about a meta post on the main SE seems a bit too meta. – inund8 May 14 '21 at 21:05
  • Cool, I've added my pronouns to my profile. – Schwern Jun 25 '23 at 23:10
  • Would probably be best, from a SEO point of view, to not answer this with any links – bukwyrm Jul 12 '23 at 11:22

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